From the Clergy

The call of God and new beginnings

September is all about new beginnings. The children return to school in a new class, or a different school, young adults prepare for University, or their ‘gap’ year and we say farewell to the last vestiges of summer and prepare for autumn.
Read more: From the Rectory

An interesting measure of our overall happiness is our answer to the question. "what would you do if you won the lottery?" I've asked myself the same question this month, mostly for the reason that virtually everything mechanical or electronic I own decided to break during the past four weeks; my phone, my car, my desktop PC and laptop are amongst the casualties. I could thus answer the question for myself along the lines of "replacing each of the above, plus a nice flat somewhere"- referring to the perennial problem of ministry that when you retire, you don't have anywhere to live. Overall, my answer suggests that I'm generally pretty content with my lot. It seems to me that the more removed our answer to the lottery question takes us from what we actually already have in our lives, the less happy we are with what we have.

“A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains” (old Dutch proverb)

I’m writing this on wet day in June (come on summer!) drinking a cup of tea, gazing two postcards from our recent trip to Italy. The first one depicts a typical ‘piazza’, with tables and chairs set out under the dappled shade of the plane trees overhead, and a waiter serving two espressos and pastries, to a couple who are just calmly watching the frenetic world go by. As I stare at this scene, I feel I am back there with them, waiting at a table just out of view for the waiter to bring us our order, so we too can just wait and see…..
Read more: From the Rectory

Alfred Hitchcock said that ‘drama is life with the dull bits cut out’. We’re beginning the very long part of our year known as ordinary time, which starts on Trinity Sunday and goes to Sunday before advent. It is the dull bit of the Church’s year. The beginning of ordinary time is a good opportunity to think about how we live the un-dramatic and sometimes uninteresting parts of our life together.
Read more: The Assistant Curate writes........

In a different life I commuted every day from Kent to London. Feeling a bit like the Reggie Perrin of old, I travelled daily from Tonbridge to Canon Street, then underground to Bank station in the City. Each morning, as the doors ‘shhhhhhhd’ open, I alighted from the carriage to the sound of the monotonous, regular intonation:
Read more: From the Rectory